#505 Now Sold

NB Saturn Oak and Chrome Plated Fountain Pen

(£5 from the sale of this pen will be gifted to The Shropshire Union Fly-Boat Restoration Society, the Custodians of NB Saturn)



EUROPEAN OAK - Quercus robur

Usually straight-grained, the heartwood of European Oak varies in colour from light tan to brown. Quarter-sawn pieces show attractive flame figuring. The wood is fairly hard, heavy and dense, clean but with the occasional knot. European Oak is a beautiful timber and with an oil finish, the grain will turn a deep golden brown.

This particular piece of oak (probably English rather than European) is just a little bit special though. It is one of the large bow mainframes from the Shropshire Fly Boat Saturn. The days of the fly-boats began with the success of the Bridgewater and Trent & Mersey canals in the 1770’s. Up until the heyday of the fly boats cargos had sedately plodded up the towing paths (Haling Way’s in them thar days) at three miles per hour or so but the new Fly Boats with teams of four men and two horses regularly galloped their loads of perishable goods at ten miles per hour. 

Built in 1906 for the Shropshire Union Canal Carrying Co. at Tower Wharf, Chester, Saturn was used for the fast carriage of cheese from the producing towns of Cheshire and Shropshire to the major markets such as Manchester. 

Saturn is the last horse-drawn Shropshire Union Canal Fly-boat in the World – originally built to travel non-stop, day and night. Over 100 years old, she has been fully restored to her former glory; not only to preserve her for posterity but to educate present and future generations about our waterways, narrowboats and horse-boating.







Pen #505 was turned at the Norbury Festival on 1st May 2016

It was a tough week for us after leaving Autherley Junction and heading out for the Festival at Norbury. Poor little boat dawg Dudley wasn’t well. He was his usual springy Patterdale self most of the time but he had an extremely upset stomach. We did all the usual things that is advised, starving him for 24 hours, feeding him very boiled plain rice and introducing boiled chicken over a couple of days but it wasn’t getting better and he was stopping drinking and losing weight. 

We had headed off our farm side mooring next to bridge 31 on the Shropshire union canal and moved a short distance to the edge of Gnosall where we knew there was a vets. Dudley was showing signs of depleting energy, that night he started being sick every twenty minutes or so and we sat up all night hoping that the vet would see us in the morning. The vets has a few surgeries and this one was only open for an hour but luckily the vet was able to arrive early and sort poor old Dudley out. We still don’t know exactly what was wrong but after a course of anti vomiting drugs he was back to normal. We suspected that his illness may have been caused by the Canal and River Trust spraying the towpath side weeds, Dudley does like a nibble on the spring grass shoots. 

This did put the pen turning back a bit and my mind wasn’t in the right place for the amount of concentration that pen making involves. I did get quite a lot of sawing, measuring, marking, cutting, drilling, gluing and barrel trimming done though all of which will get me back on track.

We had a great time at Norbury Festival and definitely hope to return in the future, we may even be getting a piece of genuine 1700’s Thomas Telford lock gate!








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